It has been a long time since I have posted anything here. I guess when life gets in the way, the blog is one of the first things to suffer.

I started a new job back in August and that has taken a lot of my time and energy. Luckily the work is basically the same as I was doing before, just with a new company, so it was really easy to get settled in. This new gig has been awesome so far and they are a great group to work for. I never really knew how much I missed going in to an office as well as working for a small / lean outfit. I’ve had the chance to do a few new things as well as take part in some project work which I had not been able to do at the previous place.

On the radio side, I have been relatively busy with the local club (YARC) as I am now the club President / Chairman. Back in October, the previous president decided not to re-offer and it did not look like anyone else was really interested so I threw my name in and gave it a shot. So far it was been a fun learning experience.

I’ve also been working on one of the club’s Yaesu DR-1X repeaters and the associated HRI-200 to get it connected to Wires-X. Unfortunately, after a few months of troubleshooting and trying various things, we have determined that the HRI-200 is dead and we need a new one. I am hoping to get that sorted out sooner rather than later and get this project squared away. After that, we have a few other club projects on the horizon.

On a personal level, I have recently been battling some health issues. I am hoping we are on the way to figuring them out. Unfortunately, due to their nature, it makes work (and computing in general) relatively difficult and painful. I am keeping my hopes up that this is just temporary and will soon be resolved. There’s no point in dwelling on the negative as it does not help anything!

That pretty much sums things up from the last few months! I hope everyone has had a great start to 2018 and I hope to be posting again relatively soon!

Last summer I purchased a 48ft aluminium tower and an antenna rotor. This year I purchased a tri-band yagi to put on top of it. Between work, kids, life, and perpetual procrastination, I haven’t been able to get my prep work done. This past weekend, I finally got the chance to start by putting together the form for the concrete base I will be pouring.

I received a comment on my previous video (where I used Hamlib for rig control) by G4POP. He indicated that I would be able to get a view of VFO B in the application if I used OmniRig instead. I decided to give it a try. I found, not only that the second VFO was where, but the response time to and from the rig when issuing commands was much faster.

It is once again time for another Log4OM video! In this third installment of the series, I take a look at setting up Right Control / CAT using the Hamlib library and my TS-570. I go through the configuration and demonstrate how it works.

I posted the video last night and have already received some feedback from G4POP (Terry Genes) who is one of the Log4OM team members. He indicated that I would be able to get more features (and faster response time) by using the Omnirig library instead of Hamlib. I am going to play around with this and probably record an additional video about it. Stay tuned for that.

One of the fun things about our great hobby is that we get to tinker with all sorts of gadgets. Over the past couple of years I’ve purchased a few cheap device kits from eBay, Amazon, AliExpress, etc. These gadgets are perfect for people, like me, who are only just getting into electronics and learning how things work. The best part is that these kits are very cheap so if you damage it you are not out a lot of money.

I’ve bought, and put together, various kits. Some examples are: An oscilloscope, a sound meter with LEDs to indicate the level, an audio amplifier, and a few more. My two favorites so far have been the $20 oscilloscope and the $12 transistor tester.

Most of these kits are fairly well made but certainly not as high quality as something you would get from one of the traditional manufacturers. However, they are great for learning. Today’s post is focused on the M8 Transistor tester that I recently built. You will find some links below to Amazon and eBay where you can buy this kit.

The PCB in my board holder with the first few resistors installed.

Here is my soldering station (purchased on eBay) and my multimeter. Those are the only tools I needed to assemble the kit.

Here is a shot of the back of the board prior to soldering the components and clipping the leads.

Here you can see that a few more components have been installed. The board was clearly marked except for some of the polarized caps that I had to dig around a bit to figure out.

The microprocessor and LCD screen installed. I forgot to take pictures of the processor and it’s socket.

After hooking up a 9v battery the unit powers on and needs to be calibrated. The process is pretty quick and once it’s done you generally do not need to do it again. The manual explains this short process.

Testing a 3.3 nF cap. The cap is an old one that I had kicking around but the tester seems to measure relatively accurately.

Overall the process only took me about an hour to complete. However, I did assemble it in various steps when time permitted.

Here are some other comments / details about the unit:

You can power it with a power supply ranging anywhere from 5.5 to 12V as long as it is center pin positive but the 9V battery is handy for portability.

The manual is written in very poor English. You can also get it here (M8_Instructions). I had a real hard time getting it from the vendor I bought it from as their dropbox link would never work.

Make sure to calibrate the unit properly, as per the manual. If this is not done correctly you will not get the correct readings.

This tester works on much more than transistors. It will do capacitors, resistors, diodes, transistors, and more.

The microprocessor used is an Atmel ATmega328. This means that you can most likely reprogram it if you have the skills.

There are no extra components shipped with this so if you do receive a defective one, you may need to source a new part as it will probably be more of a hassle to get it from the vendor than getting it on your own.

As with most of these low cost kits, there is no case that comes with it.

I hope you enjoyed this short review of the M8 Transistor Tester. If you are interested in buying one feel free to click one of the links below. To be fully transparent, the links are through my Amazon and eBay affiliate accounts so if you would rather not use them you can go directly to the site and search. If you do use one (or more of my links) I thank you very much.

I hope 2017 is shaping up to be as good as you had hoped! This are going relatively well here except that I have run into some issues with my back within the past two weeks. I have a couple of discs that are herniated and are causing sciatic nerve pain. This is extremely painful. I have seen my doc and have started going to physiotherapy so I hope be to back in decent shape within the next few weeks.

With that said, I have not been able to devote much time to making any new videos or doing much of anything ham related lately. I suspect that will remain much the same until my back heals. The one thing that my back has not stopped me from doing is thinking of new ideas for projects and videos. In fact, I may be making a lot of work for myself.

I’ve very much enjoyed making the first two Log4OM videos and I have some ideas for more to continue the series. I like making these videos because I very much enjoy the program. These videos also help me learn more about how it works and some of the more obscure features.

I have also been interested in doing more with my RTL SDR dongle. I had started playing with a few different software applications (HDSDR, SDR Console, SDR#) prior to my back injury. So once I get back into shape I may make a couple of videos demonstrating some of the things you can do with the dongles.

Apart from the video work I have been doing, I have a few other projects that I have been working on:

Our radio club has three Yaesu DR-1X repeaters and I have been working with Yaesu to figure out the logistics of getting the 1.10Q firmware on a model that only supports the 1.oo versions (1.00n is the latest). Due to the complexity of this firmware update, we will likely need to send the unit back to Yaesu to have it done as it is not a process they are willing to release to the public. I also found this same response from another operator on one of the System Fusion email reflectors.

Along with a couple other operators, I have been looking into potentially doing a local lighthouse activation in May. That is if everything can be lined up and we can get permission to do so.

It is getting close to time for me to start planning the placement and work needed to get my two new towers in the air. This past year I acquired a 45 ft aluminium tower as well as a 3o ft self standing tower.

I also have two small kits I want to put together. One is a 40 m CW / crystal transceiver, the other is a component tester (mainly a transistor tester).

I will use this line to sum up the other 20,000 little things I want (and maybe need) to get done.

That is it for now. If you have any software or topics that you think would make a good video, please let me know and I will check it out.

I wanted to post and let you know that I have recently uploaded a video of the logging program that I have been using for quite some time. The name of the program is Log4OM. It is feature packed and is completely free to download and use.

Wow it has been a while since I’ve posted anything. I guess it’s time for a bit of an update.

The most important thing is that I got my TS-570 fixed! Thanks to a local ham who figured out there was a problem with some of the solder joints on the main board. After trying to figure it out for a few days, he noticed that pressing at a certain spot on the board would reliably reproduce the issue. He then went ahead and re-flowed a the solder joints on a good chunk of the board. The radio now works better than ever.

I also picked up two towers this summer, a 45ft aluminum and a 30ft self standing. Neither one of them is up yet but I am hoping to get to it early in the spring when the ground thaws. I hope to get a good VHF/UHF antenna on the self standing and maybe a hex beam or a Yagi for HF on the 45 footer. We will see how it goes.

Another new endeavor for me is taking over admin duties on Repeaterbook.com for Nova Scotia. It’s pretty fun to be a part of this and I’ve learned a lot about the repeaters. There’s a fair bit of research involved to get things updated. If you know of a repeater that needs updating feel free to use the update feature on the website or use the contact form here to let me know.

I’ve been working on a few other odds and ends as well. I have a Yaesu DR-1x repeater with the matching HRI-200 Wires-X node that I intended on getting set up for the club. I have a DX Engineering log periodic (VHF/UHF) antenna that I need to replace a couple elements on. I also have some other non ham projects I am working on.

Below is my latest video on YouTube. It’s showing some nasty noise I have on 80 and 40m. I’ve already shut the power off in the entire house and shack just to find out that it wasn’t anything in either of those places causing it. I guess I’ll have to get out the AM receiver and take a trip up and down the road.